tomato tues for lower south

I'll start this one for you, but will not be able to participate after this posting unless my son sends me updates.

I planted eva purple ball, white beefsteak, purple calabash, arkansas travelers and thesalonika in mine and my son's gardens. There are flowers on his white beefsteak and 1 thesalonika. The tomatos dug from my garden and replanted at his house are alive and doing ok, but probably will be a bit delayed.

Kay

Thank you so much Kay, I am actually headed outside to get some work done and wanted to get this started but need to get out there and get some things done.

For the long and short of what Tomato Tuesday is check out these threads.
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t7277-tomato-tuesday-upper-south-region
AND
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t7280-tomato-tuesday-thread-nc-midwest

As Pattipan and BBG said, just update here each week.

I'll be back inside in a bit to do my own update on my maters, I'll take a few pictures while I'm out there too and put them here.

Thanks again Kay for starting this for me, it takes a load off, I really wanted to at least get it started before heading out, but just did not have the time, which is why I am lazily posting the links to the instructions.... You will be missed over the summer, be safe, check in when you can, come back soon, and stop to smell the roses while there!!!!

So I have the following planted:

2 Bush Goliaths (pulled one out of the topsy turvey after a month)
8 Romas
1 Husky Cherry
1 Sweet 100
1 Solar Fire (topsy turvey)

One little roma working
Several of the goliaths
Husky has a few tomatoes on it

All still green though!

I've got....

Two tomato boxes with

White Queen (1), Arkansas Traveler & something else....


Panto Romanesco (6) and KY Beefstake


My 14yo human garbage disposal son's box-Black Brandywine


My Grandson's box (actually he and my 12yo daughter "share" it) White Cherry, Yellow Pear, empty (Matt's Wild Cherry eaten by birds) and Black Cherry


My Amish Paste, being covered by the borage that I just learned gets 3ft tall and wide YIKES!!!


Pano Romanesco (LARGE Itallian-we can never get it to set in this heat, but alas, we keep trying)


Panto Romanesco that broke, it's coming back!


KY Beefstake


The two-liter bottles are in water stakes, you fill them turn them upside down and it slowly waters below the surface, in a week or two I will be filling those morning and evening, it gets that hot and even though we have high humidity it gets dry quick. Watering this way is the best way I have found for my maters, the top layer of soil does not steam the plant when the sun is out. I got six of them for $3 at Harbor Freight, on sale they are usually $4 and well worth the cost, I need to get more.

Looking good! Thanks for explaining the 2-liter bottles! I'll have to check all my local stores for some of those stakes.

NOTE: Generic 2-liter bottles are not as thick as name brand, go ahead get the name brand (even if you just pour it out or give it to the neighbor kid) the others "colapse" and won't keep their shape. You can also add a tea to these if you wish. You also will have to pull them up every now and then, they get clogged, just tap the stuff out, or blow them out with the hose, stick them back in and let them water for you. This also gives you more time to check for bugs or weeds, kinda like starting the washing machine and dish washer, while you sweep the floor, can you imaging having to do clothes and ALL dishes by hand AND sweep???

It's Tuesday folks, time to update our tomato's progress. Mine are hanging in there, we have a few green pear-shaped tomatoes on a volunteer that is either a yellow pear (if they get any bigger we will know they are not that) or an Amish Paste. Other than that we have blooms, but nothing is setting, they fall off, partly because of the wind and rain, or goats, but with one tomato something else is going on. It is our Panto Romanesco, which is a large tomato and they don't usually have time to set down here so not really a great choice for our area, but hubby insisted. Also we have had this problem with this paticular tomato plant before, the blooms open, start to close and then fall off, but in a few weeks they make a tomato. We usually only get 4-5 tomatoes from one plant, but man are they big, but green.

We did not get our string support up this weekend, it was either that or fix the goat gate and chicken coop door, which if we did not do we may not have a garden. The goats head straight for the garden when they get out, and well chasing 30 chickens back into the coup (making them a yard is next on the list) is just not fun at my age.

I forgot to put a picture of the few seedlings that are still not out yet, I'll try to do that in a bit, also on the list is another long box for them.

So how are your tomatoes doing?

I started a post earlier and hit "draft" so I could get the pics ready. Well, has anyone an idea if my draft can be found?

Thanks, Jo

littlejo wrote:I started a post earlier and hit "draft" so I could get the pics ready. Well, has anyone an idea if my draft can be found?

Thanks, Jo

Click on the Profile link at the top of the forum navigation. You'll find the Drafts tab there on your profile page.

pattipan

Thanx Patti, I had know idea how to answer that one.

I'm not sure which region I should post in. I live on the border, but Mother nature is the boss, and about 2/3 of the time it's Lower South.

This is my 1st year using Mel's mix. (Someone borrowed my old book-Thank you!)

Most of the beds have no vermiculite in them, couldn't find it! I'm adding it to the beds as the plants will permit.

I planted 2- 2x8 beds with tomatos-9 beefsteak and 1 yellow? Store bought, I've not got the seedling raising down yet. I thought it was 1 per square ft, but as I re-read the book, it may mean 1 per 9 sq ft? I believe these are a bush and not a vine. We'll see if it works out ok.

I planted cucumbers in the back half of the box next to the fence. Will do another post on them.

The tomatoes are doing great! No ripe ones yet, but were late in getting the beds built.
I will try to get the pics showing now.
I tried, and I don't know what I did wrong or where they went, but here is the site where they can be seen and I will try to learn how to do this later.
https://s1089.photobucket.com/albums/i353/littlejo1/

Thanks to Patti for finding my draft. Jo

I'm trying to add my pics from reply above!

Plants starting to really grow, lots of blooms. The sweet 100 is just blowin' up! My first tom is finally starting to turn red.... Pics next week!

My tomatoes are growing despite being a bad gardener. I have watered them everyday and many have blooms. I have unfortunately killed my favorite sweet 100 with round up residue. Despite being very careful, it must have caught a mist of it when I was killing grass around my beds. I planted a couple of better boy babies and one is doing great and the other got damaged by something (cutting worm or animal). I have 4 tomatoes in one box that are showing some kind of problem, possibly iron deficiency, that I am watching. The other 4 in another box are doing well as well. They all have grown at least 7 inches to reach the next square of the trellis net.

Heidi

This is the brandy wine, there are a total of 17 tomatoes on this plant I can see and so many blossoms Im amazed. I am pruning, was shooting for single stem, but one got away from me so a few of the plants are two stem. I am still seeing much more production that I ever have.



7 Tomato plants to the left of the beans. 3 San Marzano, two black krim, two black cherry


Brandy wine on the left and a German Queen on the right. The queen hasnt shown any tomatoes yet, this plant I injected with some spinosad 2 days ago, I saw what looked like someone boring into the vine.

Mr. Stripey has 13 tomatoes varying in size. I like his name




This is a creole and she has so many more on her vine.


Im happy with how things are going with the tomatoes so far I am always on the look out for blight, living in the humidity its just a fact of life. I do plan on a UV flashlight for night time stalking of those horn worms. I have green productive plants and that makes this girl happy.


Ha-v-v

Looks GREAT, please keep me posted on that creole, I want to see the inside too, I mean how meaty it is. I want some of those next year.

FarmerValerie wrote:Looks GREAT, please keep me posted on that creole, I want to see the inside too, I mean how meaty it is. I want some of those next year.

Thank you I will, my neighbor is so kind to provide me with all my creole plants, she plants many many from seeds.

Ha-v-v

My son sent pictures.

Unknown heirloom. The seed fell off the papertowel I was sprouting on, but it is possibly a white beefsteak. (or thesalonica, eva purple ball, purple calabash or arkansas traveler)


Yellow pot on left is a patio tomato. The yellow pots behind are peppers. Red pots are either unknow that came with the upside down planter or brandywine pink. (the upside down seeds didn't seem to be germinating, so i stuck some brandywine seeds in. all decided to sprout. These are the thinnings)


patio cuke, arkansas traveler, eva purple ball, cuke on steroids (supposed to be another patio cuke)


The unknow heirloom from above, purple calabash, thesalonika and white beefsteak.


No pictures, but the babysitting bed is getting blooms and the arkansas traveler that I wasn't sure was going to survive the trip is growing again.

I am over 30 tomato plants now. I started out with 8 plants then I bought 6 on sale for $.50 each. After that I rooted 16 more plants because I just felt sorry for those suckers I kept snapping off. I am still rooting a few more plants. I need professional help. Tomatoes Anonymous?

I am growing

Black Krim
Brandywine
Green Zebra
Bradley Pink
Box Car Willie
Black Prince
Pineapple
Mr. Stripey
Yellow Plum
San Marzano
Cherokee Purple
Old German
and
Husky Cherry Red

I just counted them and I have 38 tomato plants. 8 of them are doing very well. 6 of them are iffy. 16 are rootings from the good 8. The rest are new rootings from the good 8 so we will see if they make it.

My yellow plum tomato had 2 ripe tomatoes on it today. They were very good. It had bunch of green tomatoes on it that would be ready soon but I found this critter pulling them off. Maybe somebody can help me ID this critter. Also are there any repellents I can use to keep it away?


Her name is Megan and she is 2.

Petals, I guess she saw you harvesting the two ripe ones and decided to help. She needs her own SFG bed.

She looks like a sweet thing.

I do think you have truly gone over the top with your tomatoes. Do you like to can? Wish I could grow Mr Stripey and Old German here, I love them both, but alas no heat and they take so many days to maturity.

Megan was napping when I harvested those two. She just decided to pick the others on her own. She is very sweet but right now she is a bit of a stinker. Setting her up with her own SFG would be a great idea. Maybe a 2X2? She is so tiny she could barely reach into the middle of a 2x2 right now. What should I plant in it? Any suggestions?

Wish I could send you some of my extra Old German's & Mr. Stripey's. I have a few extras for some reason.

Even a few flowers that would be her own would make her feel like a big part of the garden. 2X2 is probably a good size for her this year and you could make it a squash box next year. You know next year, she will be a better helper.

Can you still plant bush beans in your area or is it too warm already? Most mature in 60 days. I am sure it is too warm for radishes (30 to 40 days) and anytime is a long time for a bitty girl.
Even a tee pee over a 2 X 2 with scarlet runner beans would be interesting for her and they have gorgeous red flowers before the beans start. Too high for her to pick, which might not be a bad idea this year, and a couple of flower transplants in the same bed.

I think I can still plant beans, eggplant, squashes and . . . tomatoes. Of course I need another tomato plant like I need another hole in the head. Lowes still has tons of stuff right now. I'll go check it out tomorrow. How do I convince my husband that he needs to make another box?

I'll be late getting my update in, spent too much time outside pruning and watering, but I did get pictures. Oh how I wish I could get my laptop running, that would mean less sharing hubby's laptop....